A Warning To Tourists In Wutai
by Patrick Phelan
Summary: AVALANCHE's first visit to Wutai, hunting down a thief. Features medium language, spoilers for Disc One, and a very aggravated Cloud.
1. Cloud Breaks A Drawer

Author's Notes: I've had this one kicking around on my hard drive and my blog for some damn time and I hope that uploading it here will inspire me to get off my arse and finish it. Like "Everybody Else's Girl", I hope I can find a way to get formatting to work on this one soon - something about the HTML I'm using is unliked by ff.net. And I don't own any of the characters, but Squaresoft does.  
  
* * *  
  
If he kicks that $^@*in' drawer one more time, Cid thought, with mild amusement, it's gonna smash all over the damn floor. And he's gonna have to pay for it. And that'll just piss him off even more.  
  
Cid could afford to make judgements about these things. He was an engineer, after all.  
  
He had to wonder why the Wutai Inn had a single room that slept six, but it had come in handy. Cloud had only been persuaded to leave three people to guard the Tiny Bronco, choosing to leave Red, Cait Sith, and Barret, while somehow neglecting its pilot. Cid didn't mind... much. Spiky was providing much more entertainment even than working on Cid's pride and joy.  
  
Right at the moment, the aforementioned warrior and de facto leader of AVALANCHE was pacing around the room, muttering angry curses under his breath. He mananged deftly to step around Aeris, who was bandaging Tifa's upper arm, and Vincent, who was performing some routine maintenance on his Peacemaker. Cid was particularly amused to see Vincent paying attention to cleaning out the materia slots.  
  
Because they were empty, of course.  
  
"Why aren't we going after her?" Cloud shouted, pausing just on the sane side of pulling his Rune Blade and doing serious damage to random furniture.  
  
"Tifa shouldn't go anywhere with this kind of injury." Aeris replied, not looking up from her work. "I really need some potion to heal it quickly, but we used the last of ours in the last battle. I'll need to go back to the Tiny Bronco to get more."  
  
"One of our Restore materia can cast a second level Cure spell." Cloud mused, staring out of one of the windows, over a Wutai that sheltered, somewhere, a teenaged ninja who had dared to thumb her nose at mighty Cloud Strife, and who mighty Cloud Strife was even now imagining being pecked to death by hungry chocobos. "Even a Regenerate spell, I think. One of those would have Tifa back on her feet..."  
  
"So if Yuffie would kindly drop in and cast one, we'd be fine, wouldn't we, Cloud?" Aeris pinned the bandage, patted Tifa's shoulder with a smile, and stood. "As it is, we need to make alternate arrangements."  
  
"As it is, we need to catch her, and get the damn materia back."  
  
"C'mon, Cloud." Tifa said, standing to drop onto one of the beds - and sparing her cut arm. "Yuffie shouldn't have stolen our materia, and I agree we have to get it back, but you sound like you're out for blood."  
  
Cloud took a moment before he replied. "The materia was a gift of the Planet, to help us save the Planet. Without it... you've seen us fight. We're not useless, but we're close."  
  
So this is all about your feeling impotent, Strife? Cid thought, smiling quietly to himself. The moment I saw your $^@*in sword, I knew you were compensatin' for somethin'.  
  
"Well." Aeris took up the Fairy Tale lying by her bed, running her hands over the empty materia slots out of habit. "I'm going back to the Tiny Bronco now, to get Tifa some potion. You can either come with me, or take Cid and Vincent to run around Wutai howling for ninja blood. Remember that if you do the second, you'll be leaving me and Tifa alone in dangerous surroundings. You've mentioned something about that, I think." With a smile - does the $^@*in' girl ever do anythin' without one? - Aeris walked out of the room.  
  
Cloud growled, turned, and kicked the bedside table that had been suffering his ire ever since their arrival in the room.  
  
As Cid had predicted, it broke. The leg he had kicked snapped in two, spilling the table down on one corner and letting both of its drawers spill onto the floor, the list of emergency PHS numbers skidding across the floor to land at Tifa's feet.  
  
Cid couldn't help but to laugh as loud as he could, despite the look of impatience and annoyance in blue-green Mako eyes.  
  
Yep, he thought, Spiky's far more fun than the $^@*in' Bronco. 


	2. Vincent Solves A Puzzle

"Can I help you?" asked the attendant at Wutai's general store. 

"Yeah." Cid replied, trying to put his spear somewhere a trifle less noticeable. He wasn't good at dealing with people, he had to admit, but if it was him or Vincent, the choice was obvious. "I'm lookin' for a kid, might've passed through here… about…" He placed his hand at his mid upper arm. "…about this tall, brown hair… carryin' a damn big throwin' star thing and some kinda shield? Answers to… um… kiss a…"

"Kisaragi." Vincent added from the back of the store. "Yuffie Kisaragi." 

"Yeah, that." 

A flicker of recognition in the attendant's eyes, and Cid thought they might have gotten what they were after for one brief moment. Then she bowed, raised her head, and replied: "I'm sorry. We haven't seen anyone like that." 

Cid flipped a cigarette from the packet in the band of his goggles, ignoring the curl of the attendant's lip as he lit it. "Damn. Well, thanks anyway. Uh… you got any materia?" 

She shook her head, silently. 

__

They're talkative little bastards in Wutai. "All right. Vinny?" 

"Hold on, Cid." Vincent said, his voice as soft and calm as ever. "Is this box part of the store's storage?" 

"...the hell should I know, Vin?" Cid asked, shaking his head. Valentine was a puzzle. 

"It was left here a few months ago," answered the store attendant. "The original owner has likely abandoned it, and I have not been able to open it. If you wish, you may take it, as I doubt its owner will return." 

"Thank you," Vincent replied, not taking his eyes from the box. 

"What's up?" Cid asked, coming over to look at the box with him. 

"I've seen boxes like this before, when I worked... in my old position." Vincent didn't like saying that he had been a Turk, and Cid had to agree that – particularly in Wutai – it wasn't the smartest thing to say. His golden claw clicked over what Cid had assumed was simple decoration. "It's a puzzle-box, made in the old style." 

Vincent laid the box on the floor again, and started manipulating the designs with his living hand, pushing some designs into the box and pulling out others. The box occasionally clicked as he pressed a design, and every time it did, Valentine paused and stared at his handiwork so far. 

"So... when you get it in the right position, the box opens?" 

Vincent nodded, not turning his eyes away from the box. "An early combination lock." He pressed one of the designs a little further into the inlaid wood, and with a click, the box's lid flew open... revealing a shining blue orb within. 

"That one of ours?" Cid asked quietly, looking at the materia. 

Vincent shook his head. "I don't believe so. I do not recognise the patterns. I think I've seen materia like this before, though... in my old position." He picked the materia up in his flesh hand, held it up for a moment, and stared into it. 

Suddenly, it was missing. Vincent blinked, and then turned to see Yuffie Kisaragi running out of the general store, materia in hand. Cid was in hot pursuit, having even dropped his cigarette, and Vincent stood to follow them. 

Outside, Cid was leaning against a pole, breathing heavily, and Yuffie was nowhere to be seen. 

"You should stop smoking," Vincent observed. 

"$^@* you," Cid replied. 

Vincent scanned the area, half-raising his Peacemaker out of habit. "Where could she have gone?" 

"That's the damn _problem._. She couldn't have gone _nowhere_. 'Less maybe she dived." Cid raised himself from the pole enough to gesture at the lake the general store was set over. 

Vincent walked to the edge of the bridge, and looked into the water. Shaking his head, he turned back to Cid. "Do you think we should tell Cloud?" he asked.

From the way Cid looked at him, Vincent knew exactly how receptive he was to _that _plan. Cid pulled the packet of cigarettes from the band of his goggles, shook one out, lit up, and took a deep drag. "$^@* it," he announced. "I need a drink."


End file.
